The End of the Innocence  A Soul Wounded Forever
by tilinelson2
Summary: Based on my previous fanfic "Whatever Lies in the Depths of Her Soul", I decided to expand Anna's story further, talking this time about the tragic events of her "mysterious past"


Mr. Grigory Zirski arrives at home with his keycard already in his right hand. He pauses in front of a housedoor and examine his surroundings. He, then, inserts the keycard in the lock, insert his password in the panel and unlocks the front door. In a hurry, he climbs the doorstep, enters the building and closes the door again. He activates the triple locks, the alarm and then release a sigh of relief. Inside, Maria was staring at her husband, worried about his behavior.

"We'd better take care. The neighborhood is not safe anymore. Have you seen the news, honey? 3 murdered by those scoundrels yesterday!" - said Mr. Zirski before kissing his wife.  
"Good God! And what about the police? Didn't they do anything?"  
"Oh, Maria, you know how the police are nowadays. They don't do anything to prevent the scoundrel actions because they are scoundrels too. They share their booty, they are easily bribed."  
"We can only pray for our safety. Oh, Grigory, I'm always so anxious when you or the kids are out..."  
"By the way, are the kids in?"  
"Yes, they are, dear. Anna is locked in her room, upstairs. You know it is not easy for her, she is at that certain age when the worst thing for a girl is to stay at home."  
"I know that, honey, but she will have lots of time to hang around with her friends in the future. For now, I prefer a daughter angry than dead."  
"Grigory!"  
"Sorry, dear, but at these times, this is exactly what I think."

Maria returned to the kitchen, to resume preparing the dinner. Grigory followed his wife. Arriving there, he went straight to embrace little Natasha, who was radiant at the sight of ther father in her baby chair. He stayed some time pampering his favorite. Then he went to the refrigerator, grabbed a beer can and left the kitchen. He returned to the living room. He passed in front of the hall, turned into playing room by his sons. Inside the hall were Ivan, playing with building blocks and cars, and Tatyana, coloring some drawings she had just made. Grigory just said "Hi, kids!" and the children answered "Hi, dad!". Then Grigory went straight to his comfort couch in the living room, opened the beer can, turned the TV set on and let his mind wander for a while.

Into the hall, Ivan said:  
"Tanushka, I wish our daddy could play a bit with us."  
"Me too, Ivan, but you know he is a bit nervous these days. Who knows if he can play with us after dinner?"  
"I hope so."

The evening went calmly. Mrs. Zirski finished preparing the dinner, arranged the table in the dining room and announced it from there. Then, she went upstairs to call Anna, who would not hear from her bedroom. She lightly knocked the door and said:

"Anna, dear, the dinner is ready!"  
"Leave me alone!"  
"Anechka, please!"  
"Sorry mom, but I don't want to eat anything. Please, leave me!"  
"Anechka..."

Maria returned to the dining room, where everybody was ready to eat. Grigory has already served Ivan, Tatyana and himself. Noticing that Anna did not appear, he asked:

"What about Anna?"  
"She said she just doesn't want to eat with us."  
"What!" Grigory screamed hitting his fist loudly in the table. Noticing he has scared his children, specially Natasha, who started sobbing, he lightened a bit his tone. "That spoiled little brat! I'll teach her a lesson!"  
"No, no, please, dear, don't. After the dinner I'll have a conversation with her."

Grigory stopped his motion to stand up, sat down again and resumed his dinner, mumbling "Alright, alright". He was clearly angry with his elder daughter.

Suddenly, the lights went out.

As the lights went out, Anna cursed. She wondered "It must have been my dad. He has cut the energy from her bedroom on purpose! I can't get out and now I can't stay in!". She heard some noises and people screaming in the streets, but she didn't really pay attention to what they were talking "it must be some drunkards". Some seconds after, she heard some loud cracks "What is it?" and some seconds after, a huge explosion that shook the walls of her bedroom. Her heart went racing madly and her legs became weak. She was badly scared by the explosion. "Oh, my God, what was that, what was that?"

Before she could recover, she heard some loud yells from the same guys who were screaming outside, but this time they seemed to come from the living room. "Oh, my God, it is here! They are inside". Now she was paralyzed with fear. Then she heard her family screaming as well, noises and screams. "Oh, my God, what is happening there?". Suddenly, a muffled pistol crack. Her heart almost stopped at that moment. "That can't be true... that can't be!". The crack was followed by an horrible scream, and she knew that was her mother's scream. "Mom! Dad". He heard two pistol cracks more and her brothers screaming. "Not again, not again!" The guys were yelling and she heard sounds of bangs, things being broken and more screams by her brothers. "Stop, stop, this can't be true!". Her minded started wandering. "They are killing my family! That can't be true!". She decided she couldn't stay there anymore, "I must do something, I must save them", so she unlocked the door, went outside her room, grabbed a heavy marble statue that decorated the upper hall ("that must do!") and started climbing downstairs. Everything was dark, she almost lost her balance while climbing down the stairs holding the bulky statue. At that time, the screams started waning and she heard one of the scoundrels saying:

"Leave the baby alone and help us loot the house."  
"No, I'll finish her off. Who knows if this girl can recognize us later."

And as Anna reached downstairs, she saw through the opening that lead from the hall to the living room that the living room was illuminated by a flashlight. She could see from there one scoundrel, at the moment he kicked her little sister's head as if it was a football. The girl flew with the force of the kick and crashed into the wall. Anna only thought: "No, Natashenka!" and, as the scoundrel had his back turned to her, she raced madly towards the guy ("Monster! I'll kill you!") and hit him with the marble statue on the head.

To her surprise, the guy felt a bit dizzy, but didn't collapse, as she expected. "I can't believe, why he didn't die?". He stumbled two paces, then turned to her and grabbed her by the neck, screaming: "What is that!". Anna left the statue fall and tried to free herself, but she was just too weak, she realized now how weak she was. "It must be a nightmare!". Then, one of the scoundrels was climbing up the stairs and asked:

"What was this noise? What happened?"  
"There is another girl in the house." yelled back the scoundrel who was holding Anna. He looked at her for some seconds and said: "This one is gorgeous, I'll have some fun with her before finishing her off."  
"Be quick with that, they cops will arrive soon!"  
"Don't worry, I'll leave something to you, if you want."

Anna was paralyzed with fear again, she almost fainted. She knew what the guy would do to her and she now cursed for looking like a 15-year-old girl while being just 11. "Damn, this pig will rape me, I can't let that happen!". She looked around and saw Natasha with her skull split open, dead. She saw too both Ivan and Tatyana motionless, inside a pool of blood, with their skulls crushed after being clubbed to death. "My brothers... my beloved brothers...".

The scoundrel took her to the dining room and laid her with her belly down on the table. There she saw her both parents shot dead. She couldn't believe that was true and she couldn't even fight to avoid her fate. "If that is a nightmare, why don't I wake up? That is too much for me!". The scoundrel was tearing apart her clothes and, at the same time, tried to climb over her when the table collapsed. Both fell on the floor and the scoundrel was still grabbing Anna, but he hesitated for a second and that was enough to Anna free herself and start running. "It is now or never" She went to the kitchen and then to the laundry, were there was a door leading to the back porch, but that was locked. "I must escape, I must find a way... aha!" She didn't think twice, opened the metal panels and jumped head-on the window glass, breaking it.

The scoundrel immediately went after his gun, which he had abandoned while trying to rape Anna, but she was out of sight when he returned. He screamed to his companions, who were looting the upper floor of the house:

"The damned girl has got loose and is escaping!"  
"You idiot! Leave her and help us! Police are arriving!"  
"No, she can't escape, she has seem my face. I'll kill her!"

Anna fell on the backyard in great pain. "Pain, pain...". Hundreds of glass shards pierced her exposed skin. "Now I'm dead", she thought. But she was still alive and there was no time, she had to climb the wall and jump to the other side. "I must get there, no matter what.". The problem was that the wall was 7-feet-high and she has never climbed it before. She tried with all her might once, twice, three times, but she just couldn't. "I can't believe, a miracle chance of escaping and I'll end dying here.". She heard the heavy steps of the scoundrel approaching and panicked. "That pig will get me". Before it was too late, she remembered the vase in the other corner of the backyard. She climbed on the vase and tried to jump over that wall. She had forgotten the barbed wire over the wall and cut her right hand on a spike. "Now I'm done". But, in those unexplainable strength efforts people are able to achieve in critical situations, Anna managed to climb over the wall and cross through the barbed wire fence, hurting herself more in this process, and landing in the other side, hurting herself further. "Now I really died, pain, I can't stand it". The scoundrel put his head through the shattered window just in time to see Anna falling to the other side. He shot the wall in hopes the bullets would hit her, but they were not strong enough to perforate the steel walls. "Thank God for the steel".

One of the other two scoundrels who was looting the house opened Anna's bedroom window and yelled to his companion:

"Come here help us! We are about to leave!"  
"That damned girl has escaped! I must catch her, or else we will be doomed."  
"If you don't help us, we will not be able to escape police, then we will be really doomed!"

The scoundrel who was trying to kill Anna returned to the living room where he met his companions. The three ran away from the house, taking all the loot they could. Anna was in a state of shock after all her ordeal. After some minutes, not yet sure if it was safe to return to her house, she thought it better to return and try to get some help. Maybe someone of her family was just injured and could still be saved. She had fallen in the backyard of the chemical factory that was beside her house. She knew going back was the way she got there was not a possibility, so she tried to find a way out. There was no one in the factory, not even security guards. She wandered a bit and examined all her options: the best option to get out there was to climb the gate. Though the gate was high and had spikes at the top, it would be nothing compared to what she had already faced. Weakened by the pain and the fear, it was a painful task, but she eventually managed to overcome the task. Her mind was partly in shock and the only thing she had in her mind was that she had to return home.

She returned home and looked inside: everything was dark and quiet. She couldn't hear a sound or see anything but for the entrance of the living room, faintly illuminated by lamppost lights outside. She entered the dark room and stayed for some moments there, waiting for her eyes to get accustomed to the darkness. She spotted her brothers laying on the floor and touched them, but all three were beyond help. She stumbled over the debris of broken furniture and things and went to the dining room, only to find that both her father and her mother were clearly dead as well. She collapsed on the floor and started crying, in shock. The pain, the sorrow, the shock, she couldn't stand anymore. She laid on the floor in a fetal position and stayed crying there for a long time, with only one thought in her mind: "This... can't... be... true...".

The police arrived half an hour later and found Anna in shock, still crying. They asked her some questions, but she only cried. They called an ambulance, which took her to the nearest hospital. In the hospital, she was medicated, had her wounds bandaged and, finally, she was admitted because of her state of shock. She was still crying and haven't uttered a single word yet. Later, shortly before dawn, she left the state of shock. The first thought that came to her mind was: "I'll never shed a tear again." 


End file.
